Friday, May 31, 2013

Eli's Coming Finished


The "Eli's Coming" quilt for my soon to be born grandson is finished. The measurements are 35 by 42  .  Credit for the pattern can be found at Teje's blog, NERO'S POST AND PATCH, and in her Etsy Shop, TEJESARITA.  I love her versions of the quilt!


The fabrics are Woodland Tails and other Riley Blake fabrics that I purchased from Arlene's Etsy Shop, HOOTCOUTURE.  I would highly recommend this shop for fabric purchases.  Arlene is so helpful!   She even refunded me postage overages. 


The backing fabric is the orange dots



I love photographing quilts as much as sewing them.... so indulge me. Here you go. Backgrounds of tobacco and tractors and close ups of the quilting:











Thursday, May 30, 2013

Vintage Big Stars Quilt Top

I have found another vintage quilt top made by my Grandma. Just look at those gigantic stars!


I find it interesting that I found this quilt top exactly one day before I finished the marathon quilting of The Grandma Quilt posted about HERE. This quilt top and 30 some star blocks posted about HERE were safely stored in my Mama's cedar chest. For about a week I had felt a strong urging to finish going through the cedar chest to the point of not even being able to sleep a couple of nights.

We have been working in my mother's house, cleaning out things and doing what must be done after a parent passes away. So, yes. The cedar chest and the quilt top and stars all came home to live at our house. Could it be that both Grandma and Mama were urging me to find them? I felt so close to them both when going through the chest and when the first Grandma Quilt was being quilted.

Here are some close up pictures of some of the different fabrics in the quilt.  They all have a very masculine look to them.  The first Grandma Quilt will be my daughter's and this more masculine one will be my son's.  That is, when I am able to part with them!
 
Egyptian!





I have been considering doing "big stitch" quilting on this top.  This is also known as "depression quilting", "Country Quilting", or "Utility Quilting".  I love how this type quilting looks and its much faster.  But, I am having second thoughts about that.  This Quilt top deserves more.  I will have to think about it some more before I embark on another 3 year quilting odyssey!




Thanks Grandma and Mama!  Love and miss U.....

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Eli's Coming

Today is WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  My work in progress for this week is a baby quilt for my newest grandson due in August.  I worked all day on Memorial Day and was able to finish the top.

Eli's Coming
 Every time I mentioned working on Eli's quilt, my hubby would burst into  a song called "Eli's Coming".  I thought it was some cute little Bible song he had sung in Sunday School as a child.  But, when I did an internet search, I realized it was a song from 1969 by Three Dog Night.  LOL Click HERE to hear the song if you are too young... or too old to remember it.


But, I think its the perfect name for this quilt... because Eli is coming... in August.


This fabric is called Woodland Tails by Riley Blake.  Some of the coordinating fabrics are from other fabric lines from Riley Blake.


When you don't worry about the dust bunnies and things like that on your day off from work, you can get a lot done on a quilt!  Below is the pin basting process:



I am planning machine quilted swirls and stippling for this quilt.  I would love to finish it before the weekend. 






Close up of Woodland Tails.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Grandma Quilt Finished


Finished!  I thought this day would never come.  The Grandma Quilt is done.  I started this quilt over three years ago and worked on it off and on... mostly off.  But this past week I felt driven to finish it and so I spent every spare minute before and after work and on the weekend quilting those Baptist Fans.


Thank you Grandma for making this quilt top and thank you Mama for taking care of it and passing it on to me.

 
 



The back.





 
 



Now, on to the next hand quilting project! 

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Quilter's Day Book... Today I am....

Today I am hand quilting:


Sunshine on my shoulder.
 
I am wearing black yoga pants, green tee shirt, pink hoodie sweater, Mama's blue terry bedroom slippers.  Its a little coolish today for Memorial Day weekend.

Baptist Fans

I am hearing the wind.

Marked arcs.

I am cooking a small roast slow cooked in the oven, with potatoes, carrots, celery and onions.  One hour on 325, one hour on 200 and then sitting in oven which has been turned off.  Will be very tender!!!
Love the disappearing ink.

Earlier today I cleaned out Mama's cedar chest.... found another quilt top.  I'll soon be hand quilting another Grandma Quilt.

Home made pattern.
I am reading The Couple's Devotional Bible, Words for Encouragement For a Discouraged World, and scraps quilting books looking for quilting ideas.

All my supplies
I am feeling happy that I have time off from work and for today all is right with the world....

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Quilt Secrets

I recently came into possession of one of my Grandma's antique "utility" quilts.

Must have gotten my scrappy quilt love from Grandma!
Its really, really old and raggedy. When I say utility quilts, I mean simply that my Grandma and Grandpa needed quilts to keep their family of 11 children warm. Plain and simple. The house my Mama grew up in was a big old rambling farmhouse. The bedrooms were not heated. There were a couple of rooms that had a wood heater. The rooms with the wood heaters were toasty warm, but having warm quilts in the bedrooms was a necessity. I grew up in houses that had unheated bedrooms too. I can remember having so many quilts on the bed that you could hardly turn over!

The quilt needed lots of repairs if it was to be salvaged, so I washed and dried it first.  I plan to resew the loose binding.  But if the binding had not come loose I never would have see this:

Fertilizer Sacks


The inside of the backing fabric revealed that it was made from fertilizer sacks!  See the nitrogen contents printed on the inside?  Not flour sacks and not feed sacks... but fertilizer sacks.  You can also see the real cotton that was used for batting.  That cotton came straight from a cotton field that their family tended.

Feed Sacks (W.A.Davis Milling Company)
However, there are some pieces of  the top that came from feed sacks.

I love the scrappiness in my Grandma's quilts.  I know that is where I got my scrappy quilt love!  These blocks are made with strips going cross wise, just like some blocks and mug rugs I've made in the past.


Question:  I know I can easily repair the binding that has come loose, but should I attempt to patch holes or just let them be?



When this quilt was newly made, I'm sure it was beautiful and there is no doubt that my Mama slept under it at some point.